Limited Resources: Magic 2014 Core Set Draft #3

I haven’t seen the gameplay videos yet, but I really feel that if you’re short playables in Pack 3, you should just decide on three colors. It’s a risk, but I’ve always felt like a strong deck with the occasional mana issues is more likely to win than a consistently mediocre deck.

I just finished watching round 1. I don’t want to be rude, but just so you are aware for next time, you can sacrifice the Shadowborn Demon to its own ability so you didn’t need to waste the Rod of Ruin activation.

I thought this was an interesting draft for the purposes of jumping ship and salvaging a draft.

in M1G2, there was a turn where your opponent had a messenger drake out with 1 mana open (for the cauldron sac ability). You had two 2/3′s and the corpse hauler, and you decided NOT to attack with the hauler, presumanbly to be able to use it later to bring back you demon.

That was a mistake. Opponent was on 5 life, so if you attack with all of your creatures, you threaten lethal – and that means he has to sacrifice the drake BEFORE combat damage happens, because if he doesn’t then you use your rod to ping the drake BEFORE damage, and he either trades with a creature OR gets the 4 life. That puts the opponent in a really awkward spot and creates a lot more pressure, which would have been translated into an earlier, more safe victory.

@Benjamin, actually, David is correct. Dismiss into Dreams not only turn opponent’s creatures into illusions, but also gives them an ability, that reads: “When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.”. Thus every attempt to ping a creature will force them to sac that creature.

I really enjoy your videos, but:
1. Shouldn’t you have seen more early that blue is pretty weak? Sure it’s easy to say that after watching the video. But I was thinking during the first picks: “Why the hell is he taking all those blue mediocre cards?”.

The other colors haven’t been that impressive, but I guess I would have taken black over blue right from the start.

2. Could you stop using the beta for the videos please? I think it does not support your educational approach. You use so much time on talking about the stability that could be used to discuss card choices instead.

I think trading post may be your elixir of immortality. I don’t think it’s a generically good card, it really is niche (a niche harder to find in M14, See e.g. LR #192 @ 3:12, BWong talking about lack of artifact creatures), and outside of a deck that really takes advantage of it, it’s sort of win-more’s second cousin: the guaranteed slowbleed. Not to use your own language against you (although I totally am), is it worth a card? Is a baseline of cycling for 5 enough of a low end to justify running a card that on it’s own is clawing at mediocre and rarely reaches its high end potential? I say just another threat would be a net positive on long term win%. In this deck especially, I would have run a seakite or disperse over it for sure. It just didn’t belong.

Also, in game one, almost at the end, with you attacking with the advocate and the minotaur, and the opponent blocking with the messenger: why didn’t you ping the messenger after blocks but before combat damage? he would have had to sac his messenger before killing your creature.

I love watching your videos every Friday afternoon before my FNM draft, but I don’t understand why you’re still using the beta client. It crashes in all of your videos, and I don’t know why you thought this time would be different. Please use original client for future videos

You are going to have to use the Beta client eventually. I personally like it far better and it rarely crashes for me anymore, although it still does occasionally. I think it’s much cleaner and makes much clearer videos, given how well you edit things the crashes just aren’t a big problem for the viewer, probably annoying as heck to you, but oh we’ll. :). You are here to entertain and educate us right? Keep up the good work! And note to self: don’t build a dismiss into dream deck in draft, just way to random and if you lose your combo, you just lose to a mediocre deck, albeit one piloted better than I could do.

Hey guys, thanks for the comments as always. I want to address using the beta on the videos of late.

First thing: I like the beta. I think it has come a long way and I think it’s better than V3 now. That’s the main reason why I use it.

Second: it’s coming. If the ominous message we get after logging into MTGO isn’t a big enough hint, WotC have said that they want to get the new client live soon. We all have to get used to it sometime, I’m trying to be ahead of the curve.

The instability of the client as it currently sits is a deal breaker. I have put up with it because I want to use it, but it simply has to improve before they can ship it as the only client available. I will probably be forced to go back to V3 until the next iteration comes out for the videos, because (as was said) it makes for a poor viewing experience when it crashes.

Also, to anyone claiming that they don’t like the new client because they think it’s ugly and then referring to V3, that’s kind of crazy

I do encourage all of you to start using and trying out the new client. Once it’s live, you won’t have a choice anyway, and getting used to it ahead of time is a good way to iron out any wrinkles proactively. After using it for a while, I found I prefer it to the old client (though the crashing I do not prefer).

Just a comment on the state of things; I’m in the closed beta and the current build is super stable. I can’t remember the last time I crashed during a draft. So unless Marshall’s instability has something to do with virtualization (I doubt it), the open beta should soon be good to go.

Guys, Limited Resources is going to keep using the beta because a former member of Limited Resources left to join Wizards and work on it. That’s why Marshall is one of the only major draft publishers who uses the beta consistently — so he can send feedback to Jon Loucks.

Love the vids as always Marshall, cheers – in a way, it’s just as great to see when things don’t work out, and why.

I’d like to put in another vote of support for the beta. The lack of stability is really annoying, but I use it and I do think it is functionally much better in every other way. Also I really don’t get how anyone can honestly say the Beta looks ugly in comparison to the older version. C’mon guys, the old v3 looks terrible.

@GyantSpyder – The beta has been out for pushing a year and I have only just now started using it myself day in and day out. I do provide Jon with feedback whenever I can, but it’s not the reason I use the beta.

Also, you forgot about Ryan! He is Jon’s boss and takes the feedback from the community directly

Since we seem to be voting, I’ll toss my hat into the ring for V3. If it crashed maybe once per week, I wouldn’t mind. The multiple crashes is tough to get through, mainly because I want to see a full draft, not worrying about getting a pick in or not and seeing how it affects the deck.

I think when people say the beta is ugly they are mostly referring to the battlefield and the player info area. Both those “zones” ARE horribly designed and look awful. When you need to squint to see how many cards are in a hand or a deck, it is poor design. The battlefield layout is simply inferior to the previous version. Sure, in time everyone will get used to it, but that doesn’t mean it’s an upgrade.

I agree with henry, te beta interface is really really horrible…and makes the video really look bad. I prefer videos with V3, at least is stable, so I’ll keep closing this window and moving to Channelfireball or Starcitygames where they make videos with a stable version.

Since this has turned into a runoff between the beta and V3, I’ll put my vote in for the beta simply because it shows the pick order of the 8 players around the table. It’s silly, but the nuts-and-bolts spike in me has pined for that one feature since they stole it from us in v3. I liked the small edge you got by remembering what you passed in what direction and to whom. You get information similar to what you did by watching previous round videos (yuck!), but in a more proactive, fun sort of way that didn’t leave you feeling scummy.

For me it’s dispositive (eventhough I like everything else about v3 better).

Hey Marshall. The BETA is far better in my opinion. The ease with which I can save decks and manipulate my library is beyond compare. I also like the combat field better. But I often have feedback of my own I submit. I never can tell if it’s received though. Anyhow, how does the BETA operate when you are not recording? Can there be an interaction issue between multiple software programs running simultaneously? What recorder are you using. Maybe I can try to re-create the situation on my PC. I use an i5 processor, 8 GB RAM, Windows 7 w/ NVIDIA GEForce 560 GPU and two monitors. And the window modes are so easy to use via two monitors. Rarely crashes on me. Keep with the Beta

BETA sucks and thats it. Dont care what others like Roger think, its just plain simple: the interface is horrible, sounds, cards, fonts…dont understand how someone can support it. It was a failure when they forced us to use it, so please get back to V3.

My main problem with the beta is that they actually managed to create something uglier than v3, which is a bit shocking when you think about it. The huge, glaring white spaces in the draft section are just not as good a background as the black one from v3. It’s so obvious, really – a dark background is easier on the eye, and allows the attention to be focused on the cards and the art.

The battlefield in v3 is also extremely bad looking. It feels like hovering in a helicopter 20 miles above a table where a magic game is being held. The cards are tiny on the screen and there is a HUGE amount of vacant space which makes the board look empty even when it’s not. the summoning sickness animation is horrible and annoying to see, and the attacking “animation”, where the attacking creatures are pushed slightly forward, is far less clear than the simple, re lettered “attacking” note from v3.

The really sad thing is that with modern technology, making graphical setting a customization feature is EASY. Allow the user to chose what color the background is during drafts, allow the user to determine the relative size of the battlefield to his/her cards, etc.

I don’t know the programmers that WotC are hiring to do this job, but they obviously have no basic understanding of user interfaces. and graphic design. The new client would have an old, poorly designed vibe if it would have come out 15 years ago. Now it looks like the worst program Iv’e seen in years. Gah.

Man that first match had my on the edge of my seat. So awesome because you never knew when that guy would come back, after the first match it was crazy seeing him just stabilize and win. Great job overcoming a tough matchup.

sorry but with so many crashes i just cant watch this garbage why even post the video i mean really you defend the beta but it crashed at least 3 times during your recording thats terrible as a pay to play game one crash a week is to much for me 3 in 1 draft is completely unacceptable

I wasn’t sure if pivoting to black was the best choice but I didn’t see anything else worth picking that late anyway. Maybe sticking blue would have given you a more consistent deck. Where do you draw the line between staying consistent and branching out to find more power?

M1 was pretty crazy; I admire your opponent for assembling the combo, even if it proved unsuccessful. ^_^

In game 3 (irrelevant of blocking the wrong guy) would it have not been better to have played the festering newt which would allow you to trade your voracious wurm (+newt trigger) for his advocate whilst also leaving the option to gain 4 off the post or did you think you needed the cards you had in hand, it seemed like playing the divination was too long term (this sounds wrong but I can’t think how better to word it) when you were in a very ‘survive the short term’ situation. It felt like the corpse hauler was basically a piker due to the ooze so may have been better as 4 life?

Limited Resources
Limited Resources podcast co-host Marshall Sutcliffe provides coverage on North American Magic events and writes for DailyMTG. He educates listeners about limited and heads the highest-prizing clan on MTGO.

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